Workers in many industries use personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep themselves safe. On construction sites, PPE products help to prevent injuries and ensure workers’ safety in risky situations. Construction workers and project managers can read on to find out about eight types of must-have PPE that will keep laborers safer in just about any circumstances.
1. Head Protection
Head protection is one of the most vital forms of PPE Gear available to construction workers. This category includes any product that prevents harm to workers from falling tools and materials or swinging objects, and some types of head protection even protect against entanglement in dangerous machines. Common types of head protection include:
- Hard hats
- Helmets
- Bump caps
- Guards
2. Hand Protection
Construction site injuries to hands, fingers, and arms are quite common. To avoid these injuries, workers need to wear proper hand protection gear whenever it’s required.
Work gloves and gauntlets are very much appropriate for construction and outdoor work. If laborers are working in cold or hot environments, using chemicals, using machines that create a lot of vibration, or handling abrasive or sharp objects, they should be provided with hand and wrist protection.
3. Eye and Face Protection
Every day around 2,000 workers in the United States sustain serious work-related eye injuries, and around 20% of those injuries occur on construction sites. Most eye injuries can be avoided by using proper eye and face PPE, including safety goggles or glasses, eye or face shields, over specs, and visors.
4. Respiratory Protection
Workers should use respiratory protection PPE whenever they could come into contact with gases, dust, powder, or vapors. Types of respiratory protection include full-face and half-mask respirators, breathing apparatus, protective hoods, powered respirators, and disposable face masks. Make sure to provide workers with adequate training on how to use this equipment.
5. Hearing Protection
Hearing protection is essential in any environment with lots of noise. The best way to outfit construction workers with hearing protection is to provide them with a range of products, then let them choose the ones that best suit their needs. Personal PPE like earplugs and defenders can be coupled with products like noise meters, communication sets, and acoustic foam.
6. Foot Protection
Foot protection provides workers’ feet and legs with a level of defense against hazards like crushing, piercing, cutting, slipping, extreme temperatures, electricity, and chemicals. Construction workers should always wear safety boots that incorporate toe protection.
7. Body Protection
Body protection equipment covers a wide range of products, from harnesses to high-visibility clothing. It should be worn when working outdoors in extreme weather when working in mixed-vehicle areas, or to provide protection against chemical exposure, entanglement, and extreme temperatures.
8. Height and Access Protection
Height and access protection equipment is designed to protect laborers working at height. This category of PPE includes fall-arrest systems, body harnesses, and lowering harnesses along with rescue lifting equipment and energy absorbers. Height and access protection equipment only need to be used when construction laborers are working above the ground or in trenches.
Safety Should Always Be a Top Priority. Project managers have a responsibility to their construction crews to provide them with a safe work environment. While there’s no way to eliminate every hazard associated with the construction industry, providing workers with all the right PPE and teaching them how to use it properly can go a long way towards reducing workplace injuries.
